By Michael Cignoli (For OzarksSportsZone.com)
STRAFFORD – There weren’t many moments where the Strafford volleyball team faced adversity in its Class 2 sectional match on Thursday night – but there was one very notable one.
The Indians surrendered a five-point lead in the second set against Mountain View-Birch Tree Liberty, forcing them into a set point that had the potential to shift the entire dynamic of the game.
Rally out of the deficit and the Indians would take a commanding two-set lead, squashing a potential rally. Allow their frequent playoff adversary to capitalize and the match suddenly becomes a best-of-three, with Liberty holding all the momentum heading into the pivotal third set.
“One thing that we’ve been really working on this year is just composure on the court – no matter what – and that next-ball mentality,” Strafford coach Ashley Bough said. “And so we said you can’t dwell on the past mistakes or how the last point went, but we just talk about what we’re going to do next.”
What they did next could have very well saved the match.
The Indians rallied back to score the next three points, winning the crucial set and riding the momentum to a 3-0 sweep that punched their ticket to the state quarterfinals. Strafford (25-8-1) will visit Mid-Lakes Conference rival Fair Grove (30-1-4) on Saturday for a spot in the Final Four.
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The Indians reached the quarterfinals after racing out to sizable leads in each of their sectional’s opening two sets, only for Liberty (27-5-3) to surge back on both occasions.
Liberty used a 9-2 run in the first set to rally out of an early 4-0 deficit, but Strafford immediately responded and scored 12 of the next 15 points to reclaim a 18-12 advantage. The Indians went on to win the opening set 25-17, then took a 5-0 lead in the second.
“We thrive off early leads,” Strafford senior Abby Chadwell said. “It’s how we get all of our momentum.”
But Liberty slowly chipped away at that lead in the second set, and used a late 7-2 run to take a 24-23 lead in a set that Strafford had led 21-17. With one more point, it’d be anyone’s game.
“The points that Liberty scored to get into that situation were great points,” Bough said. “They were things that they had to do to be successful. We just had to keep our mentality, come out there, keep our composure and win the next ball.”
The Indians did two better, closing on a 3-0 run to take a commanding 2-0 match lead.
“You just have to settle down and just play the game,” Strafford senior Ashley Suter said. “If you’re thinking about making a mistake, that’s when you’re going to make a mistake.”
There were very few miscues from that point on.
“It gave us a lot of momentum as a team,” Chadwell said. “It gave us a lot of fire.”
Strafford went on to win the third set 25-16, its largest margin of victory of the night. The teams were tied 10-10 before Strafford scored 15 of the set’s final 21 points for the win.
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“There have been several times this year that we’ve been up two sets and we end up losing in five or we just struggled to finish,” Bough said. “That’s been one of our main focuses this last month of the season, that third-game mentality. When you’re up and you’re feeling good, maintain that and not just settle and be complacent out there. I was really proud of my team.”
One of the two teams to stun Strafford in that manner was Springfield Catholic, who overcame a 2-0 match deficit on September 19. The other happens to be the Indians’ next opponent.
After dropping the first two sets on October 6, Fair Grove rallied back to win the final three sets by a combined eight points – part of a 30-game unbeaten streak that continued with a 3-0 sweep of Diamond in another sectional on Thursday.
But after Strafford overcame its own two-set deficit to win its eighth district title in nine years earlier this week, it allowed the Indians to see what it takes for a team to battle back from the brink of defeat. That helped them avoid a similar fate against Liberty, and they hope to take the lessons learned into the rematch with their conference rivals.
“We’ve worked a lot,” Bough said. “We’ve grown a lot. We talked about growth this year and that from each game, we’ve got to grow a little bit. We are a different team than we were two weeks ago. We’re a different team mentally. We’re a different team physically. We’ve worked on some things that we felt like our weaknesses are. Now, are we perfect? Absolutely not. But I know that my kids now have the tools and they felt that success in those pressure situations to pull it out. I’m just excited to go up. I know it’s going to be a battle. It always is with Fair Grove.”
Strafford and Liberty have had plenty of their own battles over the years.
They met in the state tournament four times in a five-year span between 2014 and 2018, with Liberty taking three of the four matches. But the Eagles did not advance out of their district in 2019 and the teams spent the past two seasons in different classes – making a postseason meeting impossible.
Liberty beat a shorthanded Strafford team earlier this season, improving to 11-3 against the Indians since 2010. But none of that deterred the Indians.
“We just talked about how we needed to come in with a fresh mindset,” Chadwell said. “Years prior and earlier this season didn’t really matter as much.”
Suter finished with a match-high 11 kills for the Indians, who remained in system for the majority of the night. Chadwell added five and four aces, and set up plenty of other kills from Sophia Frerking (seven), Halle Forester (six) and Sophia Venosdel (four).
“Our serve receive was really good tonight,” Bough said. “That’s one thing we talked about in the locker room. That was pretty solid tonight, across the board. That’s huge for us to be able to run our offense and spread it out. I think most of our kids had a great game. There wasn’t one player that really struggled offensively tonight, which is something we had in the beginning of our season. We’ve just been working and working on that consistency to be able to run a diverse offense. Tonight, I felt that was huge for us to get momentum and keep momentum.”
Bre Daniels had six kills for Liberty, which returned to the state tournament after winning its third consecutive district championship – and 11th in the past 14 seasons. But Strafford picked up its first playoff victory over Liberty since 2015, when the Indians finished as the state runner-up.
“Anytime we play them, it’s going to be a battle,” Bough said. “It’s a fun rivalry. In the end, it’s a game, but it’s always good and competitive and it’s always going to be a high-level match.”
